From the archive: Loyalists line up for Battle of Sotheby's

Another battle between the two main Loyalist groups in Northern Ireland will be fought in an unusual setting today: the floor of a London auction room.

The Official Unionists and the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists are expected to bid for Lot 214 at a Sotheby's silver sale. The item is a dip pen which ranks as the most prized Loyalist political relic in private ownership. The silver pen was used by Lord Carson in 1912 to sign – together with 237,368 Ulster men – the solemn Covenant of defiance against the Home Rule Bill. Loyalists regard the document as having been directly responsible for the creation of Northern Ireland as a political entity.

Northern Ireland's Unionists are passionately attached to material symbols of the Loyalist tradition and those associated with "Ulster Day" – September 28, 1912 – and Lord Carson, the Unionist leader of the time, are particularly valued.

The Covenant itself is out of private reach, residing in the Public Records Office. Copyright is owned by the Loyalist establishment, in the form of the Official Unionist Party. The table on which it was signed is locked away in a storeroom at Belfast City Hall, having been rescued from council workmen who committed the near sacrilege of mixing cement on it.

The wooden ink stand used for the signing is the proudest possession of Mr Paisley who has cast himself as Carson's successor. And it is Mr Paisley's ambition to return Lot 214 to his stand, which promises to make it one of the most expensive dip pens in the world. The pen is being sold together with two silver caskets, one of which was presented to Lord Carson on Ulster Day to mark the occasion, the other having been a gift by Unionists to Lady Carson in 1914, to mark their wedding anniversary.

Sotheby's, who refuse to identify the seller, estimate the material value of the three items at between £600 and £800. Neither the Official Unionists nor Mr Paisley would admit ­yesterday that they would be bidding for the pen.

But Mr Paisley admitted that he regarded £1,000 as a reasonable bid. "It has more than historical interest to those who take the Loyalist position.

"I have one of the bandoliers that were used by Carson's Ulster Volunteer Force. I have one of the old wooden rifles that was used in training the men, and I have a couple of busts of Lord Carson put out as mementoes … the ink stand is my proudest possession at the moment and the pen would be if I could get it."

Historic articles from the Guardian archive, compiled by the Guardian research and information department (follow us on Twitter @guardianlibrary). For further coverage from the past, take a look at the Guardian & Observer digital archive, which contains every issue of both newspapers from their debut to 2000 - 1.2m items, fully searchable and viewable online